What machines can't do - politics and technology in the industrial enterprise

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Thomas, Robert J. (Robert Joseph), 1952- Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Social sciences.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (336 pages)

Place of Publication:

[Place of publication not identified] University of California Press 1994

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Virtually every manufacturing company has plans for an automated "factory of the future." But Robert J. Thomas argues that smart machines may not hold the key to an industrial renaissance. In this provocative and enlightening book, he takes us inside four successful manufacturing enterprises to reveal the social and political dynamics that are an integral part of new production technology. His interviews with nearly 300 individuals, from top corporate executives to engineers to workers and union representatives, give his study particular credibility and offer surprising insights into the organizational power struggles that determine the form and performance of new technologies.Thomas urges managers not to put blind hopes into smarter machines but to find smarter ways to organize people. As U.S. companies battle for survival in an era of growing global competition, What Machines Can't Do is an invaluable treatise on the ways we organize work. While its call for change is likely to be controversial, it will also attract anyone who wishes to understand the full impact of new technology on jobs, organizations, and the future of the industrial enterprise.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Figures and Table

Preface

ONE Introduction

TWO Technology as a Power Tool: Technological Choice in an Aircraft Company

THREE Between Invention and Convention: Technological Choice in a Computer Company

FOUR Collaborative Change Technological Choice in an Aluminum Company

FIVE A Contest over Content Technological Choice in the Auto Industry

SIX Politics and Technology

SEVEN The Politics and Aesthetics of Manufacturing

APPENDIX 1 Talking Technology

APPENDIX 2 Preliminary Coding Categories

APPENDIX 3 Definition of Coding Categories

References

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

ISBN:

0-520-91507-0

0-585-03291-2

OCLC:

1419790130